Let’s give Mayor Jeff Scrima’s campaign treasurer something to do

A couple of websites are raising the question, how can Mayor Jeff Scrima’s campaign only be reporting a $100 donation from himself if the campaign is buying all those newspaper ads? Well, it depends when the ads ran.

The campaign finance report is only through the end of last year. Unless there were ads run before December 31, 2013, Scrima may not have had to come up with any money, and therefore avoided having to report more contributions to himself (or contributions from his parents).

Hypothetically speaking, what if the ads ran and he was waiting to be billed? Political campaigns don’t work that way. Newspapers, radio and television require ads to be paid up front because campaigns are fly-by-night organizations. Even winning campaigns are slow to pay the bills after election day so media companies generally prefer the money up front.

The next reports are due February 10th and they cover January 1st to February 3rd. Scrima’s newspaper ads will fall into that time period as well as his Facebook advertising.

We should also know how well his fundraiser at People’s Park went. If the fundraiser failed to cover the bill at People’s Park then any food and beverage donation has to be reported as an in-kind contribution. If food and beverage were donated by Dan Taylor then that has to be reported too.